The Great War - Part 11

Uploaded 07/19/2008

The next morning came way to quickly. I felt as if I hadn't had any sleep. I kept seeing that Bot walking towards us. I could picture it aiming the guns at us and opening up. We would have been dead if it weren't for those Apaches and I'll never forget them.

"You had a rough night too?" said Johnson. "Yeah......yes I did" I replied softly.

We started towards the mess tent and grabbed some breakfast. We all knew that the replacement would be here soon. We all talked about the good times we had with Rutter and Howards. Those were much better times than now. I pushed the bacon on my plate around with my fork. I wasn't all to hungry this morning.

"Say hello to Private Jenkins everybody!" exclaimed Powers.

Jenkins was a young kid, I'd say nineteen years old. He walked hastily towards us and shook each of our hands. We looked him up and down and knew he was just another newbie. He started to question us all about the war and the conditions around here. He just kept talking and talking and talking. Finally, I had enough and left the tent along with Johnson. We just had to get away from that kid's constant questions. We headed towards our barracks when our jaws dropped in awe. There, right in front of us were twelve battle ready Assault Bots. I nearly shit my pants at the sight of them. I went up to one of the Panthers and started to study it. I remembered all the training that I had undergone to use this bad boy. It was similar in design to the old version the Rebels were using. It had the same two transformations, but the armament was much different. In Blitzkrieg mode, there were two .50 cal machine guns mounted on each side. This made hit and run attacks very effective. The Assault mode transformed the Bot into a bipedal machine. The two arms housed two ACD Gauss Rifles. These Rifles could fire high energy bursts towards a target with a deadly result. The burst would cause a large explosion capable of decimating any vehicles and infantry. Johnson studied one of the Tigers which was a more powerful Assault Bot. The Tigers had the same transformations as the Panthers yet on a larger scale and with much heavier weapons. The Tiger could carry eight GYU Missiles along with two Heavy Gauss Rifles. The missiles could track enemy vehicles using radar to ensure pin point accuracy. The Heavy Gauss Rifles fired extremely large bursts of energy. These bursts pretty much ensure instant death to anyone within a twenty foot radius. Although, the cooldown time was much longer than the Panthers.

There were several other models, but I was only focused on mine. That is, until Powers walked up to us. He told us that the Bots were sent over for the three squads in camp to share. Powers was able to reserve us a Panther, Tiger, Raven, and Thunderhawk for our squad. We all knew that this would mean more frequent missions and patrols along our perimeters. I didn't care what I had to do, I was yearning to get in the cockpit of that Panther.

Later that night, we received orders for Johnson, Majors, Jenkins, and I to intercept an enemy convoy. We climbed into the cockpit of our respective Bot and strapped in. We turned the Bots on and headed out. This was going to be too easy.